National Post editorial board: Hail Nova Brunsward

Maritime Union: Hail Nova Brunsward

Anyone looking to see some of the Earth’s most breathtaking landscapes should head directly for Canada’s Maritime provinces. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are beautiful places. And the generosity and good spirits of the people match the natural scenery.

But Canada’s Maritime provinces are, in some ways, odd creatures. The three provinces mentioned above, combined, have a population of 1.8 million. That would be enough to make them Canada’s fourth largest metropolitan area, behind Vancouver and ahead of Ottawa. That’s not enough to justify three whole provinces’ worth of government, legislatures and bureaucracy.

That’s why three Tory senators — Stephen Greene of Nova Scotia, John Wallace of New Brunswick and Mike Duffy of P.E.I. — have proposed a form of political union between their home provinces. They intend to formally announce their plan in Halifax this weekend.

This isn’t a new idea: Unifying the Atlantic provinces into one larger province has been discussed since they were still British colonies. Nor is it a proposal with much chance of success, at least in the short term. Such a radical transformation of Canada’s political structure would require significant amendments to the Constitution, a complicated, politically fraught process that no politician would approach lightly.

Additionally, there is the matter of entrenched interests in all three provinces benefiting from the status quo. No one involved in provincial politics in Charlottetown, Fredericton or Halifax will be eager to see their whole branch of government, from which they and their staffs derive their livelihoods, streamlined out of existence. Indeed, we were not surprised to see provincial politicians quickly dismissing the notion of a political union as being a menace to all that is good and godly.

But the idea is a sound one. And we applaud the above-described senatorial trio for pushing it.

A co-operative arrangement between the three provinces — call it Nova Brunsward — even if it fell short of formal amalgamation into one province, would have more clout on the world stage and within the Canadian federation, and would also offer a more rational population base with which to support a provincial government. We agree with Senator Duffy, who told the National Post that, “for 1.8 million people we are terribly over-governed.” The larger a provincial government’s tax base, the easier it becomes for it to deliver the services it is constitutionally mandated to provide, and to do so efficiently.

Take Prince Edward Island, for example. The entire province, with 140,000 people, would rank only 10th in population among the 25 municipalities that make up the Greater Toronto Area. Yet it has a provincial legislature with 27 members, a premier (with all the staff that entails) and 45 different municipalities.

Compare that with the city of Oshawa, Ont., east of Toronto. It also has roughly 140,000 people — and is governed by a mayor and 10 councillors.

Yes, it is true that as a province, P.E.I. must offer myriad additional services that Oshawa receives from the Ontario government. But the point remains. When Senator Duffy suggests that a population of 1.8 million people should not require three separate provincial governments, and then all of the regional and municipal governments and agencies below them, he is on to something.

Canada is already a heavily governed country. The percentage of the Canadian workforce employed by government admittedly has come down since reaching its peak in the 1990s, but is still higher than is the average across our OECD peers. And according to the annual Economic Freedom of North America report, released by the Fraser Institute on Wednesday, the three members of Nova Brunsward rank in the bottom four for Canada (only the presence of Quebec in eighth place prevented New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. from taking all three of the last spots).

We are not unaware of the pride that residents of every province take in their local histories and autonomy. But in an increasingly competitive world and in these times of austerity, every jurisdiction across the land must carefully consider how much government they can really afford, and explore ways to co-operate.